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Artists: Sapphina and Zaria Roller

LOCATION: Madison Modern Market

Artists’ Statement:
The first mural I did was on the morning after the first weekend of protests on State Street. I remember getting down there pretty early and being one of the first murals that started to go up. It was pretty jarring to see the condition of State Street. The first mural was my favorite. I wanted to show someone who looked like me, so I had this image of a girl with her natural hair up with the Black Power fist up. Even though we were covering up the damage from the protests, I wanted this mural to stand in solidarity with everything that they were fighting for. I wanted people walking by who might be upset by the material things that were destroyed to see what was really important in this moment. That Black lives are precious and worth protecting. That’s something to fight for by any means necessary. -Sapphina Roller

(Source: Let’ Talk About It. The art, the artists, and the racial justice movement on Madison’s State Street. American Family Mutual Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact. Sheboygan, Wisconsin, 2020. Page 152)